


Stranger Things

by SierraLaufeyson13



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, lil bit of angst, lots of fluff, tons of cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 20:17:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13107768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SierraLaufeyson13/pseuds/SierraLaufeyson13
Summary: Oneshot starring the stubborn Dr. Stephen Strange and his closest friend.





	Stranger Things

**Author's Note:**

> She makes my heart beat a little faster,  
> Her life is perfect, mine's a disaster
> 
> -"Boy Like Me" by New Medicine

The phone buzzed violently in the cup holder of her black SUV. She had never liked talking on the phone and driving but after a second when the number registered to a contact name and a picture of Christine popped up she answered without hesitation. The nurse was close to hysteria and it worried her, "Christine? Slow down."  _It's Stephen, he's been in a car wreck, in the operating room now. Come quick, Ell_. The line goes dead and Eloise slams on the brake, turning sharply to head back towards the city from the old country road.

Nurses, patients, and doctors alike are stunned when she entered the Emergency Room, frantic and scared after driving nearly two-hundred miles in just over two hours. He had been in surgery for almost seven hours when the swinging doors were pushed open and his hospital bed wheeled out. Christine waved her over and they followed, waiting outside his room while they righted the machines and made sure his arms were lifted properly.

"What's the news?" she asked, not sure if she wanted to hear it.

"His hands, the nerves, they're in ruins. We don't think he'll ever be able to operate again," Christine saw how she took a sharp breath and nodded, "Are you going to be okay?"

"I'm not the one you should be asking," Ella responded. Christine bit her cheek to hold in her tears but there was nothing Eloise could do to stop the flood. It was a strange type of crying, part grief, and part joy. He was alive, but at the cost of losing everything. When Christine was confident that Ella had settled in for the night, she left, promising to be back in the morning. Ella pulled the visitor's chair next to the bed and sat down, crossing her legs.

She almost laughed at how terrible he looked, far from the handsome boy that had taken her to prom and celebrated with her when their acceptance letters came. His left eye was swelled shut and painted in blues and purples, two butterfly bandages held together a cut on his forehead and next to his eye. The worst of it was his hands, surgical pins had been placed in his hands and up the length of his forearms. Seeing the x-ray pictures made her cringe. Ella leaned forward and placed her hand on his forehead, "What am I going to do with you, Strange?"

He took a rushed and panicked breath that startled her from the daze of waking up, "Stephen, it's alright. You're going to be alright." Christine had returned and broke the news, Eloise already knew he would not have taken it well. The injection of morphine soon caused him to slip back into sleep and Ella laid your head on the hospital bed, wishing to hold his hand.

After the third night of sleeping in the small and uncomfortable chair, Christine laid her hand on Ella's shoulder, "I can take care of him if you need a break."

She shook her head, she wanted her friend, not a break, "I'm not going to leave him, Christine. He's my best friend."

The nurse laughed, "You have shitty taste in friends." Eloise had to laugh as well, being friends with someone with an ego the size of Russia was at times the hardest thing she had ever done. "He's a pain in the ass sometimes, but I still love him."

888

"I'm fucking tired of seeing this damn beard," he turned his head away from the window and his reflection and back to Ella. She disappeared for about an hour and returned with a bag full of grooming supplies. Her motions with the razor were smooth and practiced, she had taken care of her dad until he passed, refusing to stick him in some home until he died. Ella wiped away any residual cream with a warm rag and smiled, "look at that, smooth as a baby's bottom," she laughed at her own poor joke that failed to provide Stephen with any sort of amusement. With a heavy sigh, she capped the shave cream can and dropped the razor into an old coffee mug. When she leaned forward to kiss his cheek, his skin tingled with the aftermath of her lips.

888

Ella lost track of how long he had been in the hospital, but after numerous more surgeries, the doctors had come to an agreement that there was nothing else that could be done except for physical therapy, which he resented for the lack of improvement. She poured two glasses of white wine and sat them on the table before dishing out the pasta onto two plates. His hands trembled as he lifted the fork to his mouth.

She had plundered around until she found a game of checkers, one of the black chips was missing so she set the board up with one less red. Ella had just plopped one of the red pieces on top of another, crowning Stephen's piece into a king. "Don't you need to go back to work?" The question had taken her off guard, it sounded like he didn't want her around anymore.

Eloise shrugged, "I quit, kinda, I mean, I'll still have my position when you get better."

Stephen's face was an unreadable mask of too many emotions to begin to decipher, "I'm not going to get any better," his voice was raised but it was fissured, he swiped his hand across the table and sent the game board with all its pieces, even his king, to the floor.

Ella winced at the outburst and lowered her eyes, after a moment of tense silence she spoke, "I hate it when you talk like that." She hated to hear anyone talk with such pessimism, especially those whom she cared for. "It's the truth," his tone was flat this time.

"Just give yourself more time," Ella smiled and remembered the time she had been in a situation comparable to his current one. "Remember when I tore my ACL and started playing softball too soon so they had to fix it again?"

"You lied to your parents about the recovery time," he mused.

"It's like that, you need more time to let your body heal." He stalked over to the window and braced his forearms against the glass pane. "But I'm not healing anymore," his voice cracked. She wrapped her arms around his midsection and pressed her cheek into his back as he looked out the window. It took time and persistence but he caved and laid his hands on top of hers.

888

"Christine wants to know if you want anything special from the market," she looked from the cutting board that had an array of chopped vegetables for a stew. Stephen was on the couch, and his answer was less than affable.

"I want a cure," he replied, bitterness and nihilism overruled his tone. Eloise was having more and more difficulty with him. He rejected all help and tried experimental surgeries from professionals and other methods from people less qualified. He wouldn't listen to her and she didn't know why she stayed.

It was storming, the lightning illuminated the bedroom and claps of thunder rattled what belongings were still on shelves. She grabbed a blanket and trudged to his room, he hated storms now too. He didn't say anything as she slipped between the sheets and pressed her face into the cool skin of his back. A few seconds longer and her arm was draped over his side and chest, and he held it against him.

Food was scattered across the counter, having yet to be put away from the trip to the market. She grabbed the set of colored pencils and a small stack of coloring books that she'd picked up from the kid's store. He was trying to write his name again, but the penmanship was rudimentary at best, it looked like how he had written his name in the early years of schooling. She sat opposite of him and pushed the coloring supplies in front of him. "I can't even write my name correctly and you want me to color?"

She reached forward and took the pad of paper from him, there were pages filled with nothing but his name, some signatures were better than others but none of them compared to what it had been before the accident. "When you look at this and try over and over you just get frustrated if you want to exercise your hand then try coloring, at least then if you mess up it'll be art." Ella held onto his hands

When the groceries were put away and a soup was simmering on the stove, she returned to your seat with two cups of tea, green for her and oolong for him, both sweetened with honey. Surprisingly he had begun coloring, a dinosaur book that in truth she wanted to color for herself, but she grabbed a fairytale themed one and a purple pencil to begin.

A loud clatter drew her from the bathroom, his long robe was tied around her waist and the excess length was dragging on the floor, water dripped from her wet hair. His forehead was pressed against the glass window, papers scattered around his feet, and his tablet lay on the floor with the screen still showing an ended Skype call through the cracks. "Stephen?"

"Come on, let's go to bed, or dance, or do something." Ella scrolled through her phone's music selection and picked at random. She pulled him away from the window and began swaying, gently pulling him into her motions until he gave in and wrapped an arm around her waist. They hadn't even heard the door open as Christine came into the apartment with a bag of goodies. She smiled at the sight though something stirred in her chest, the nurse grabbed a pen and paper and scribbled down a note to leave with the bag, leaving without a sound.

He spun her around and caught her when the robe tangled around her feet. "Do you know when the last time we danced was?"

Stephen nodded, remembering how girls were fawning to be his date but he asked Ella instead, the nerdy girl who fit in better with the guys than the girls, "senior prom. You've gotten better if I do say so myself," he added after a moment, but then she stepped on his foot and he laughed, it was good to hear him laugh. "Only stepping on my foot once is an improvement from a dozen times with heels."

"Stephen," she scoffed and hid her face in his shirt but he could still feel her lips pull into a smile. His heart beat a little faster and his fumbling grip on her waist and hand grew tighter.

"I know I haven't acted appreciative," her eyes were shining with tears, "but thank you."

"I do it because I love you, Strange," Ella smiled up at him and dropped her forehead to rest on his chest again. They stopped dancing but the song was still playing, over and over,  _how rare and beautiful it truly is that we exist_ , he rested his chin on the top of her head and wrapped his arms around her.

Morning came and she woke to an empty bed and flat, Stephen was gone without a word or note. She called Christine, but the nurse hadn't heard anything either. He was gone. Ella walked into the open space of the living area, most of his things had been packed away in boxes. She felt a paper under her bare foot, it was a letter, crumpled and faded, dated from the same year they graduated college before choosing different careers.  _She's my best friend, mom, I shouldn't feel like I do but I can't help it_. Ella tried to call him but only got his voicemail, she sent text after text but he never read them. She read the letter again and cried.

888

At first, Ella hadn't realized it was him, with his silly costume and red cloak, blood, and scrapes on his face. But it was him, standing there like his typical self. The slap echoed throughout the room. "You disappear for over a year and just show up in my living room thinking everything will be fine and dandy?" Ella reared back, ready to slap him again but he grasped her wrist before the strike could come. Her anger was momentarily subdued when the red cloak around his shoulders removed itself, levitating and somehow sentient but then her focus was back on him.

"You're an intolerable, asshole,-" the words wouldn't come for the shock of the cloak wrapping around the both of the both of them with no intention of relenting. Her fight was in vain, the red material only forced the two closer. Stephen shrugged, that crooked smile she always found charming briefly appears on his lips but before she can admire it he was kissing her with his shaking hands cradled her face.

When they parted the cloak freed them and hovered beside them. Ella eyed it curiously, "It's strange, I know," Stephen muttered but Ella shrugged.

"I've seen stranger things," she responded and he didn't have time to react before she had gripped onto his tunic and hauled him down to her level. Her arms wrapped around his neck and the kiss only deepened when he lifted her from the floor. They could feel each other's smile when the cloak fluttered joyfully around them and finally settled back on his shoulders but encased Ella as well.


End file.
